How To Cook Bacon
Learn the 2 main ways of preparing bacon; cooking in the oven and cooking on the stove. I'll walk you through exactly how to and when I use each method.
Ingredients
- 6 or more slices of good quality bacon.
Instructions
Cooking bacon on the stove top:
- Start with a cold cast iron pan and cold bacon.
- Lay the bacon into the pan, it can be touching but not overlapping as it will shrink, but flat laying bacon will come out flatter. Choose the right burner for your pan size, you want a burner that at least heats the entire bottom of your pan.
- Turn on the burner to low heat. The setting I use is 2.5 out of 10. Allow bacon to cook and render the fat for around 10 minutes.
- Flip the bacon once the bottom side has a slightly golden crust. You may need to shuffle the bacon around in the pan if your burner or skillet has a hot spot.
- Cook until both sides have a slightly golden crust and the bacon is at your desired level of crispiness. About 5 more minutes.
- Use tongs to pick up the bacon, shake gently to remove the bacon fat, and lay the bacon strips on a paper towel lined plate to absorb the excess fat.
- Serve!
Cooking bacon in the oven:
- Grab a heavy gauge rimmed sheet pan - a heavy sheet will resist popping and warping in the oven.
- Lay your bacon onto the baking sheet, in a single layer. Flat laying bacon while cooking leads to a flatter cooked strip.
- Place the baking sheet into the COLD oven. Turn on the oven to 350f.
- After 12-15 minutes, check on your bacon. It should be nicely rendered and sizzling in the bacon fat. You can choose to flip the bacon if you like, but it's not necessary.
- Cook the bacon until desired doneness. For us, that's about 18 minutes.
- Carefully remove the pan from the oven, being cautious of the bacon grease in the pan.
- Pick up the bacon slices with tongs and gently shake to remove excess bacon grease. Set the bacon strips on a cooling rack or paper towel lines plate to drain excess grease.
- Serve as you like!
Saving bacon fat:
- After cooking bacon, strain the grease into a glass jar.
- Store in the fridge for later use.
